Moat helps Fawkham Church of England Primary School to create woodland walks

Published by DeanW for Moat Homes Ltd in Communities and also in Education, Environment, Housing

On the morning of Friday 15 July 2011 Moat and the staff, pupils and parents of Fawkham Church of England Primary School began a clear-up of woodland purchased by the school. The long term plan is to turn this land into an outdoor learning environment for pupils, as an addition to a woodland trail, recently created by parents and staff. 

Local contractor, Wealden’s kindly donated two staff members and various items of equipment for the day to make sure the clear-up could be completed efficiently and safely. They strimmed the brambles down so that the 20-strong team could access the woodland and provided smaller heavy duty gloves to make sure that pupils could help out too. 

The team cleared the remaining brambles, weeds and stinging nettles and dug up roots which were trip hazards for future visitors to the woodland. In the process, they found mattresses, a desk, clothes, sacks of decomposing rubbish and pieces of cars! 

It wasn’t long before a skip and several heavy duty disposal bags were full. After a tour of the existing woodland trail, the team decided to use the rest of their time to join the newly cleared area with the existing trail, cutting back the trees and digging through the undergrowth to create a path. 

To celebrate, the team presented Mrs Dorinda Perry, headteacher, with a cake and balloons to mark the school’s 129^th birthday! 

Mrs Perry says; “The school was absolutely delighted with the work the helpers completed last Friday and the result was amazing. What a difference it has made, with the area now being clear for the children to use. I really don’t know how we would have completed the clearing without this help. Everyone was brilliant. The children have been using the woodland all this week, in fact today at one point when I popped outside, there were three of the four classes outside exploring!” 

Moat’s Community Development Officer, Peggy Nicholson, said; “The clear-up went better than any of us envisioned! Not only is the area now clear and ready for planting but it’s also joined with the existing trail, meaning less work in future for the school and parents. A key objective for Moat is to develop communities, not just homes, and it is through projects like these that we can try to meet this aim.”